Updating time-related information in post to make it more relevant for the requester on subsequent retrieval of post

ABSTRACT

A method, system and computer program product for updating the time-related information in a post to make it more relevant for the requester on a subsequent retrieval of the post. A post with a reference to an event or activity (e.g., “leaving for Florida in 3 days”) is identified using natural language processing. Upon receiving a request from a requester to retrieve the post prior to the expiration of the event/activity, the post is updated by substituting a time countdown in the post with an up-to-date time countdown or with a current status of the referenced event/activity. If, however, the request is received after the expiration of the event/activity, then the post is removed or updated with an indication that the referenced event/activity has expired. In this manner, the requester will be receiving more accurate and relevant time-related information concerning the event or activity referenced in the post.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates generally to social network services, andmore particularly to updating the time-related information (e.g.,updating the time to the occurrence of an event or activity) in a post(e.g., status update, microblog, text-based message) to make it morerelevant for the requester on a subsequent retrieval of the post.

BACKGROUND

A social network service is an online service, platform or site thatfocuses on building and reflecting of social networks or socialrelations among people (e.g., those who share interests and/oractivities). A social network service essentially consists of arepresentation of each user (often a profile), his/her social links, anda variety of additional services. Most social network services are webbased and provide means for users to interact over the Internet, such asby e-mail and instant messaging. Social networking sites allow users toshare ideas, activities, events, and interests within their individualnetworks.

Social networking sites (e.g., Facebook®) present to a particular userthe posts by other users in a social networking feed often referred toas an “activity stream.” “Posts” can include text (e.g., comments,sub-comments and replies), audio, video images, etc. Often, these postsinclude a timeframe for the occurrence or completion of an event oractivity. For example, the post of “traveling to Boston on Tuesday”indicates that the poster will be traveling to Boston on Tuesday. Inanother example, the post of “going to lunch—back in 30 minutes”indicates that the poster will be back from lunch in 30 minutes from thetime of the posting of the post. In a further example, the post of“graduating in 3 days” indicates that the poster will be graduating inthree days from the time of the posting of the post.

Currently, social networking sites do not update the status or timeframefor the occurrence or completion of these events or activities. Hence,when a requester requests the retrieval of a user's profile or user'sactivity stream that includes the post with time-related information,the post will continue to include the time information that the posteroriginally posted even though such information is outdated. For example,suppose that a requester is a follower of the poster who retrieves theiractivity stream that includes a post made yesterday that states that theposter will be “graduating in 3 days.” However, since the post was madeyesterday, the poster will not be graduating in three days but in twodays.

As a result, posts with time-related information that are laterretrieved by other users will not include up-to-date timing or statusinformation for the occurrence or completion of an event or activitymentioned in the post that would make the post more accurate andrelevant for the requester.

SUMMARY

In one embodiment of the present invention, a method for updating a postwith time-related information to make it more relevant to a requester onsubsequent retrieval of the post comprises identifying a post with areference to an event or activity using natural language processing. Themethod further comprises extracting a time countdown from the identifiedpost and/or extracting metadata associated with the referenced event oractivity, where the metadata comprises an end time of the referencedevent or activity. The method additionally comprises identifying acurrent time in response to a request to retrieve the post from therequester. Furthermore, the method comprises determining if the timecountdown or the end time of the referenced event or activity hasexpired based on the identified current time. Additionally, the methodcomprises updating, by a processor, the post by substituting theextracted time countdown with an up-to-date time countdown or updatingthe post with a current status of the referenced event or activity inresponse to the time countdown or the end time of the referenced eventor activity not having been expired. In addition, the method comprisesproviding the updated post to the requester.

Other forms of the embodiment of the method described above are in asystem and in a computer program product.

The foregoing has outlined rather generally the features and technicaladvantages of one or more embodiments of the present invention in orderthat the detailed description of the present invention that follows maybe better understood. Additional features and advantages of the presentinvention will be described hereinafter which may form the subject ofthe claims of the present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A better understanding of the present invention can be obtained when thefollowing detailed description is considered in conjunction with thefollowing drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a social network system configured in accordance withan embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates a hardware configuration of a social network serverconfigured in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;and

FIGS. 3A-3B are a flowchart of a method for updating a post withtime-related information to make it more relevant to a requester onsubsequent retrieval of the post in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention comprises a method, system and computer programproduct for updating the time-related information in a post to make itmore relevant for the requester on a subsequent retrieval of the post.In one embodiment of the present invention, a post with a reference toan event or activity (e.g., “leaving for Florida in 3 days”) isidentified using natural language processing. The time that the post wasinitially posted, an identification of the referenced event or activity(e.g., “leaving for Florida”) as well as a time countdown (if includedin the post) (e.g., “3 days”) is extracted from the post. Furthermore,metadata associated with the referenced event or activity (e.g., starttime, end time, an identifier (e.g., Uniform Resource Locator (URL)),and a description (e.g., title)) is extracted if such information isavailable. The post and the extracted information are stored. Uponreceiving a request from a requester to retrieve the post, the storedpost is updated by substituting the extracted time countdown with anup-to-date time countdown (e.g., initial post of “leaving for Florida in3 days” may be updated with the post of “leaving for Florida in 2 days”to reflect the fact that a day has transpired since the initial postingof the post) or updating the stored post with a current status of thereferenced event or activity (e.g., initial post of “getting ready forsales meeting in 2 hours” may be updated with the post of “in salesmeeting” to reflect the fact that more than two hours has transpiredsince the initial posting of the post but the end time of the meetinghas not yet been reached) if the time countdown or the end time of thereferenced event or activity has not expired. If, however, the timecountdown or the end time of the referenced event or activity hasexpired, then the post is removed, such as from the user's profile pageor from the user's activity stream, or updated with an indication thatthe time countdown has expired or that the end time of the referencedevent or activity has expired (e.g., initial post of “leaving forFlorida in 3 days” may be updated with the post of “left for Florida” toreflect the fact that more than three days has transpired since theinitial posting of the post) based on the procedures for handling postswhen the time countdown expires or when the referenced event or activityexpires. In this manner, the requester will be receiving more accurateand relevant time-related information concerning the event or activityreferenced in the post.

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth toprovide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, itwill be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present inventionmay be practiced without such specific details. In other instances,well-known circuits have been shown in block diagram form in order notto obscure the present invention in unnecessary detail. For the mostpart, details considering timing considerations and the like have beenomitted inasmuch as such details are not necessary to obtain a completeunderstanding of the present invention and are within the skills ofpersons of ordinary skill in the relevant art.

Referring now to the Figures in detail, FIG. 1 illustrates a socialnetwork system 100 configured in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention. Referring to FIG. 1, social network system 100includes a community of users using client devices 101A-101C (identifiedas “Client Device A,” “Client Device B,” and “Client Device C,”respectively, in FIG. 1) to be involved in social network system 100.Client devices 101A-101C may collectively or individually be referred toas client devices 101 or client device 101, respectively. Client device101 may be a portable computing unit, a Personal Digital Assistant(PDA), a smartphone, a laptop computer, a mobile phone, a navigationdevice, a game console, a desktop computer system, a workstation, anInternet appliance and the like.

Client devices 101 may participate in a social network by communicating(by wire or wirelessly) over a network 102, which may be, for example, alocal area network, a wide area network, a wireless wide area network, acircuit-switched telephone network, a Global System for MobileCommunications (GSM) network, Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)network, a WiFi network, an IEEE 802.11 standards network, variouscombinations thereof, etc. Other networks, whose descriptions areomitted here for brevity, may also be used in conjunction with system100 of FIG. 1 without departing from the scope of the present invention.

System 100 further includes a social network server 103, which may be aweb server configured to offer a social networking and/or microbloggingservice, enabling users of client devices 101 to send and read otherusers' posts. “Posts,” as used herein, include a status update,microblog or text-based message that includes any one or more of thefollowing: text (e.g., comments, sub-comments and replies), audio, videoimages, etc. A user of client device 101 that posts or sends a post issaid to be a “poster.” A user of client device 101 that requests toretrieve a post issued by the poster is said to be a “requester.” Socialnetwork server 103 is connected to network 102 by wire or wirelessly.While FIG. 1 illustrates a single social network server 103, it is notedfor clarity that multiple servers may be used to implement the socialnetworking and/or microblogging service. A description of the hardwareconfiguration of social network server 103 is provided below inconnection with FIG. 2.

System 100 is not to be limited in scope to any one particular networkarchitecture. System 100 may include any number of client devices 101,networks 102 and social network servers 103.

Referring now to FIG. 2, FIG. 2 illustrates a hardware configuration ofsocial network server 103 (FIG. 1) which is representative of a hardwareenvironment for practicing the present invention. Referring to FIG. 2,social network server 103 has a processor 201 coupled to various othercomponents by system bus 202. An operating system 203 runs on processor201 and provides control and coordinates the functions of the variouscomponents of FIG. 2. An application 204 in accordance with theprinciples of the present invention runs in conjunction with operatingsystem 203 and provides calls to operating system 203 where the callsimplement the various functions or services to be performed byapplication 204. Application 204 may include, for example, a program forupdating the time-related information (e.g., updating the time to theoccurrence of an event or activity) in a post (e.g., status update,microblog, text-based message) to make it more relevant for therequester on a subsequent retrieval of the post, as discussed furtherbelow in association with FIGS. 3A-3B.

Referring again to FIG. 2, read-only memory (“ROM”) 205 is coupled tosystem bus 202 and includes a basic input/output system (“BIOS”) thatcontrols certain basic functions of social network server 103. Randomaccess memory (“RAM”) 206 and disk adapter 207 are also coupled tosystem bus 202. It should be noted that software components includingoperating system 203 and application 204 may be loaded into RAM 206,which may be social network server's 103 main memory for execution. Diskadapter 207 may be an integrated drive electronics (“IDE”) adapter thatcommunicates with a disk unit 208, e.g., disk drive. It is noted thatthe program for updating the time-related information in a post to makeit more relevant for the requester on a subsequent retrieval of thepost, as discussed further below in association with FIGS. 3A-3B, mayreside in disk unit 208 or in application 204.

Social network server 103 may further include a communications adapter209 coupled to bus 202. Communications adapter 209 interconnects bus 202with an outside network (e.g., network 102 of FIG. 1) thereby allowingsocial network server 103 to communicate with client devices 101.

The present invention may be a system, a method, and/or a computerprogram product. The computer program product may include a computerreadable storage medium (or media) having computer readable programinstructions thereon for causing a processor to carry out aspects of thepresent invention.

The computer readable storage medium can be a tangible device that canretain and store instructions for use by an instruction executiondevice. The computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but isnot limited to, an electronic storage device, a magnetic storage device,an optical storage device, an electromagnetic storage device, asemiconductor storage device, or any suitable combination of theforegoing. A non-exhaustive list of more specific examples of thecomputer readable storage medium includes the following: a portablecomputer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), aread-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROMor Flash memory), a static random access memory (SRAM), a portablecompact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), a digital versatile disk (DVD),a memory stick, a floppy disk, a mechanically encoded device such aspunch-cards or raised structures in a groove having instructionsrecorded thereon, and any suitable combination of the foregoing. Acomputer readable storage medium, as used herein, is not to be construedas being transitory signals per se, such as radio waves or other freelypropagating electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic waves propagatingthrough a waveguide or other transmission media (e.g., light pulsespassing through a fiber-optic cable), or electrical signals transmittedthrough a wire.

Computer readable program instructions described herein can bedownloaded to respective computing/processing devices from a computerreadable storage medium or to an external computer or external storagedevice via a network, for example, the Internet, a local area network, awide area network and/or a wireless network. The network may comprisecopper transmission cables, optical transmission fibers, wirelesstransmission, routers, firewalls, switches, gateway computers and/oredge servers. A network adapter card or network interface in eachcomputing/processing device receives computer readable programinstructions from the network and forwards the computer readable programinstructions for storage in a computer readable storage medium withinthe respective computing/processing device.

Computer readable program instructions for carrying out operations ofthe present invention may be assembler instructions,instruction-set-architecture (ISA) instructions, machine instructions,machine dependent instructions, microcode, firmware instructions,state-setting data, or either source code or object code written in anycombination of one or more programming languages, including an objectoriented programming language such as Smalltalk, C++ or the like, andconventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C”programming language or similar programming languages. The computerreadable program instructions may execute entirely on the user'scomputer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone softwarepackage, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computeror entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario,the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through anytype of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide areanetwork (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer(for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).In some embodiments, electronic circuitry including, for example,programmable logic circuitry, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), orprogrammable logic arrays (PLA) may execute the computer readableprogram instructions by utilizing state information of the computerreadable program instructions to personalize the electronic circuitry,in order to perform aspects of the present invention.

Aspects of the present invention are described herein with reference toflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus(systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of theinvention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in theflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented bycomputer readable program instructions.

These computer readable program instructions may be provided to aprocessor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, orother programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, suchthat the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computeror other programmable data processing apparatus, create means forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks. These computer readable program instructionsmay also be stored in a computer readable storage medium that can directa computer, a programmable data processing apparatus, and/or otherdevices to function in a particular manner, such that the computerreadable storage medium having instructions stored therein comprises anarticle of manufacture including instructions which implement aspects ofthe function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram blockor blocks.

The computer readable program instructions may also be loaded onto acomputer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other deviceto cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer,other programmable apparatus or other device to produce a computerimplemented process, such that the instructions which execute on thecomputer, other programmable apparatus, or other device implement thefunctions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block orblocks.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate thearchitecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementationsof systems, methods, and computer program products according to variousembodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in theflowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portionof instructions, which comprises one or more executable instructions forimplementing the specified logical function(s). In some alternativeimplementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of theorder noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in successionmay, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks maysometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon thefunctionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of theblock diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocksin the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implementedby special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specifiedfunctions or acts or carry out combinations of special purpose hardwareand computer instructions.

As stated in the Background section, social networking sites (e.g.,Facebook®) present to a particular user the posts by other users in asocial networking feed often referred to as an “activity stream.”“Posts” can include text (e.g., comments, sub-comments and replies),audio, video images, etc. Often, these posts include a timeframe for theoccurrence or completion of an event or activity. For example, the postof “traveling to Boston on Tuesday” indicates that the poster will betraveling to Boston on Tuesday. In another example, the post of “goingto lunch—back in 30 minutes” indicates that the poster will be back fromlunch in 30 minutes from the time of the posting of the post. In afurther example, the post of “graduating in 3 days” indicates that theposter will be graduating in three days from the time of the posting ofthe post. Currently, social networking sites do not update the status ortimeframe for the occurrence or completion of these events oractivities. Hence, when a requester requests the retrieval of a user'sprofile or user's activity stream that includes the post withtime-related information, the post will continue to include the timeinformation that the poster originally posted even though suchinformation is outdated. For example, suppose that a requester is afollower of the poster who retrieves their activity stream that includesa post made yesterday that states that the poster will be “graduating in3 days.” However, since the post was made yesterday, the poster will notbe graduating in three days but in two days. As a result, posts withtime-related information that are later retrieved by other users willnot include up-to-date timing or status information for the occurrenceor completion of an event or activity mentioned in the post that wouldmake the post more accurate and relevant for the requester.

The principles of the present invention provide a means for updating thetime-related information (e.g., updating the time to the occurrence ofan event or activity) in a post (e.g., status update, microblog,text-based message) to make it more relevant for the requester on asubsequent retrieval of the post as discussed further below inassociation with FIGS. 3A-3B.

FIGS. 3A-3B are a flowchart of a method 300 for updating a post withtime-related information to make it more relevant for a requester onsubsequent retrieval of the post in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention. “Time-related” information, as used herein, refers toa duration of time for an event or activity to occur or be completed,including, but not limited to, a time countdown. A “time countdown,” asused herein, refers to a duration of time (e.g., three days) specifiedin the post for an event or activity to occur or be completed.

Referring now to FIG. 3A, in conjunction with FIGS. 1-2, in step 301,social network server 103 identifies a post that includes a reference toan event or activity, where the post may or may not include a specifictime countdown, using natural language processing. Examples of poststhat include a time countdown, include, but not limited to, “leaving forFlorida in 3 days” or “3 days until graduation.” A set of patternsrepresenting time countdowns may be identified in the posts usingnatural language processing, such as the patterns of “in <x> <units>” or“<x> <units> until,” where <x> is a value, such as a positive number.Examples of posts that reference an event or activity without includinga time countdown, include, but not limited to, “getting ready for teammeeting,” and “listening to a sales presentation.” While such referencesmay not include a specific time countdown, such events or activities maybe scheduled in the poster's calendar. As a result, as will be discussedfurther below, social network server 103 may be able to obtaintime-related information associated with these references to events oractivities that do not include a specific time countdown by linkingthrough analytics to the poster's calendar to extract time-relatedinformation, such as the start time, the end time, an identifier (e.g.,Uniform Resource Locator (URL)), and a description (e.g., title) of thereferenced event or activity. A set of patterns representing referencesto events or activities that do not include a specific time countdownmay be identified in the posts using natural language processing, suchas the patterns of “listening to <event>,” “preparing for <event>,” or“meeting with <person>.”

In step 302, social network server 103 extracts the time that the post(post identified in step 301) was initially posted, an identification ofthe referenced event or activity (e.g., the term “meeting” in the post,the action “leaving for” in the post) as well as a time countdown (ifincluded) from the posted identified in step 301. For example, in thepost “leaving for Florida in 3 days,” social network server 103 mayextract the time that the post “leaving for Florida in 3 days” wasinitially posted by the poster. Social network server 103 may alsoextract the identification of the event/activity (e.g., “leaving forFlorida”) and the time countdown (e.g., “3 days”) from the post.

In step 303, social network server 103 extracts metadata associated withthe referenced event or activity, such as the start time, the end time,an identifier (e.g., Uniform Resource Locator (URL)), and a description(e.g., title) of the referenced event or activity if such information isavailable to be extracted. As discussed above, such metadata may beextracted from the poster's calendar entry associated with thereferenced event or activity.

In step 304, social network server 103 stores the post along with theextracted information (e.g., information extracted in steps 302 and303), such as in disk unit 208.

In step 305, a determination is made by social network server 103 as towhether it received a request to retrieve the post (post identified instep 301 and stored in step 304) from a requester. For example, therequester may request retrieval of the post via a request for retrievingthe user's profile page containing the post or via a request forretrieving the user's activity stream containing the post.

If social network server 103 has not received a request to retrieve thepost, then social network server 103 continues to determine whether itreceived a request to retrieve the post in step 305.

If, however, social network server 103 receives a request to retrievethe post, then, in step 306, social network server 103 identifies thecurrent time.

In step 307, a determination is made by social network server 103 aswhether the time countdown expired or the end time of the referencedevent or activity has expired in light of the current time. For example,if the user posted a post that indicated that the user was “leaving forFlorida in 2 hours” and more than two hours has transpired since theinitial posting of the post, then the time countdown of “2 hours” haselapsed or expired. In another example, if a user posted a post thatindicated that the user was “getting ready for the meeting” and theuser's calendar indicates that the meeting is from 1:00-2:00 pm, thenthe end time of the referenced event or activity has expired if thecurrent time is past 2:00 pm.

If the time countdown or the end time of the referenced event oractivity has not expired, then, in step 308, social network server 103updates the stored post by substituting the time countdown of the storedpost with an up-to-date time countdown or updates the stored post with acurrent status of the event or activity. For example, the poster'sinitial post of “leaving for Florida in 3 days” may be updated with thepost of “leaving for Florida in 2 days” to reflect the fact that a dayhas transpired since the initial posting of the post. In anotherexample, the poster's initial post of “getting ready for sales meetingin 2 hours” may be updated with the post of “getting ready for salesmeeting in 1 hour” to reflect the fact that an hour has transpired sincethe initial posting of the post. In a further example, the poster'sinitial post of “getting ready for sales meeting in 2 hours” may beupdated with the post of “in sales meeting” to reflect the fact thatmore than two hours has transpired since the initial posting of the postbut the end time of the meeting has not yet been reached (i.e.,expired). In this manner, the requester will be receiving more accurateand relevant time-related information concerning the event or activityreferenced in the post.

In step 309, social network server 103 provides the updated post to therequester. In one embodiment, the requester (user of client device 101)may additionally receive the extracted time-related information (e.g.,time countdown, end time for the completion of the event or activity)thereby allowing the requester to dynamically update the post with thecurrent time-related information without retrieving the post from socialnetwork server 103. Client device 101 has a hardware configurationsimilar to social network server 103 as shown in FIG. 2 (may furtherinclude various input/output devices, such as a keyboard, mouse, displayand keyboard), such as a memory for storing an application forperforming such updates as well as a processor for executing theinstructions of the application. The aspects of the present invention insuch an embodiment may be embodied as a system, method or computerprogram product as discussed herein.

If, however, the time countdown or the end time of the referenced eventor activity has expired, then, in step 310, social network server 103identifies the procedure to handle the post when the time countdownexpires or when the referenced event or activity expires. Variousprocedures may be used to handle the situation when the time countdownhas expired or when the end time of the event or activity has transpired(i.e., expired), such as removing the post from the user's profile pageor from the user's activity stream or updating the post to indicate thatthe time countdown has expired or that the end time of the event oractivity has expired (i.e., the event or activity has already occurred).Such handling procedures may be established or overridden (in the caseof default procedures) by the user (i.e., the poster).

Referring now to FIG. 3B, in conjunction with FIGS. 1-2, in step 311, adetermination is made by social network server 103 as to whether thepost is to be removed, such as removed from the user's profile page orfrom the user's activity stream.

If the post is to be removed, then, in step 312, social network server103 removes the post, such as from the user's profile page or from theuser's activity stream.

If, however, the post is not to be removed, then, in step 313, socialnetwork server 103 updates the stored post with an indication that thetime countdown has expired or that the end time of the referenced eventor activity has expired. For example, the poster's initial post of“leaving for Florida in 3 days” may be updated with the post of “leftfor Florida” to reflect the fact that more than three days hastranspired since the initial posting of the post. In another example,the poster's initial post of “getting ready for sales meeting in 2hours” may be updated with the post of “done with sales meeting” toreflect the fact that the end time of the meeting has been reached(i.e., expired). In this manner, the requester will be receiving moreaccurate and relevant time-related information concerning the event oractivity referenced in the post.

In step 314, social network server 103 provides the updated post to therequester.

In some implementations, method 300 may include other and/or additionalsteps that, for clarity, are not depicted. Further, in someimplementations, method 300 may be executed in a different orderpresented and that the order presented in the discussion of FIGS. 3A-3Bis illustrative. Additionally, in some implementations, certain steps inmethod 300 may be executed in a substantially simultaneous manner or maybe omitted.

The descriptions of the various embodiments of the present inventionhave been presented for purposes of illustration, but are not intendedto be exhaustive or limited to the embodiments disclosed. Manymodifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skillin the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the describedembodiments. The terminology used herein was chosen to best explain theprinciples of the embodiments, the practical application or technicalimprovement over technologies found in the marketplace, or to enableothers of ordinary skill in the art to understand the embodimentsdisclosed herein.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method for updating a post withtime-related information to make it more relevant to a requester onsubsequent retrieval of the post, the method comprising: identifying apost with a reference to an event or activity using natural languageprocessing; extracting a time countdown from said identified post and/orextracting metadata associated with said referenced event or activity,wherein said metadata comprises an end time of said referenced event oractivity; identifying a current time in response to a request toretrieve said post from said requester; determining if said timecountdown or said end time of said referenced event or activity hasexpired based on said identified current time; updating, by a processor,said post by substituting said extracted time countdown with anup-to-date time countdown or updating said post with a current status ofsaid referenced event or activity in response to said time countdown orsaid end time of said referenced event or activity not having beenexpired; and providing said updated post to said requester.
 2. Themethod as recited in claim 1, wherein said metadata further comprisesone or more of the following: a start time, an identifier and adescription of said referenced event or activity.
 3. The method asrecited in claim 2, wherein said metadata is extracted from a calendarentry associated with said referenced event or activity.
 4. The methodas recited in claim 1, wherein said retrieval of said post is inconnection with a retrieval of a user's profile page containing saidpost.
 5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein said retrieval ofsaid post is in connection with a retrieval of a user's activity streamcontaining said post.
 6. The method as recited in claim 1 furthercomprising: identifying a procedure to handle said post in response tosaid time countdown expiring or in response to said end time of saidreferenced event or activity expiring.
 7. The method as recited in claim6 further comprising: removing said post from a user's profile page orfrom a user's activity stream based on said identified procedure.
 8. Themethod as recited in claim 6 further comprising: updating said post withan indication that said time countdown expired or said end time of saidreferenced event or activity expired based on said identified procedure.9. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising: extracting anidentification of said referenced event or activity from said identifiedpost.
 10. The method as recited in claim 9 further comprising: storingsaid post, said extracted identification of said referenced event oractivity as well as said extracted time countdown and/or said extractedmetadata associated with said referenced event or activity.